Method for fabricating ultra-high tensile-stressed film and strained-silicon transistors thereof

1. A method for fabricating an ultra-high tensile-stressed nitride film deposited over a semiconductor substrate, comprising:

providing a substrate;

performing a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process to deposit a transitional silicon nitride film over the substrate, the transitional silicon nitride film having a first concentration of hydrogen atoms ranging between 1E22 atoms/cm 3 and 1E24 atoms/cm 3 , and a Si—H/N—H ratio of 1.0; and

after depositing the transitional silicon nitride film, performing a post-treatment to reduce the first concentration of hydrogen atoms of the transitional silicon nitride film to a second concentration of hydrogen atoms, thereby transforming the transitional silicon nitride film into the ultra-high tensile-stressed nitride film having a tensile stress equal to or greater than 1.5 GPa and having a Si—H/N—H ratio of 0.3, wherein a difference between the first concentration of hydrogen atoms and the second concentration of hydrogen atoms (ΔH) is greater than 1E22 atoms/cm 3 .

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the transitional silicon nitride film is deposited by utilizing silane (SiH 4 ) and ammonia (NH 3 ) as main reaction gases.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the PECVD process is carried out at a low-frequency RF power ranging between 50 Watts and 2700 Watts and a high-frequency RF power ranging between 100 Watts and 200 Watts.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein the high-frequency RF power is less than 150 Watts.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the post-treatment includes UV curing process.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the second concentration of hydrogen atoms ranges between 1E18 atoms/cm 3 and 5E22 atoms/cm 3 .

7. A method for fabricating a strained-silicon transistor, comprising:

providing a semiconductor substrate;

forming a gate structure on the semiconductor substrate;

forming source/drain regions on the semiconductor substrate adjacent to the gate structure;

performing a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process to deposit a transitional silicon nitride film having a first concentration of hydrogen atoms ranging between 1E22 atoms/cm 3 and 1E24 atoms/cm 3 over the substrate, and a Si—H/N—H ratio of 1.0, wherein the transitional silicon nitride film covers the gate structure and the source/drain regions; and

after depositing the transitional silicon nitride film, performing a post-treatment to reduce the first concentration of hydrogen atoms of the transitional silicon nitride film to a second concentration of hydrogen atoms, thereby transforming the transitional silicon nitride film into an ultra-high tensile-stressed nitride film having a tensile stress equal to or greater than 1.5 GPa and a Si—H/N—H ratio of 0.3, wherein a difference between the first concentration of hydrogen atoms and the second concentration of hydrogen atoms (ΔH) is greater than 1E22 atoms/cm 3 .

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the transitional silicon nitride film is deposited by utilizing silane (SiH 4 ) and ammonia (NH 3 ) as main reaction gases.

9. The method according to claim 7 wherein the PECVD process is carried out at a low-frequency RF power ranging between 50 Watts and 2700 Watts and a high-frequency RF power ranging between 100 Watts and 200 Watts.

10. The method according to claim 9 wherein the high-frequency RF power is less than 150 Watts.

11. The method according to claim 7 wherein the post-treatment includes UV curing process.

12. The method according to claim 7 wherein the second concentration of hydrogen atoms ranges between 1E18 atoms/cm 3 and 5E22 atoms/cm 3 .